Tag Archives: breaking the Duopoly

The Third Party is a theoretical political party, formed for the purpose of policy discussion. It could eventuate as a political party.

The main impetus for its creation is the perceived need by its convenor, Barry Tucker, to break the dominance of Australian politics by the Duopoly, the two major parties, Liberal and Labor.

Another motivation is the discontent with politics due to broken promises, corporate lobbying, questionable fund-raising, corruption and the selection of non-local candidates.

The 2013 federal election was remarkable for the size of the Senate ballot paper due to the number of Independent and micro parties, a near-scandal involving preference brokering, or harvesting, and missing ballot papers. A Senate committee has recommended changes, including raising the minimum size of new parties from the present 500 members to 1,500 members. This does not seem to be democratic.